How to integrate Needle MCP with OpenClaw

OpenClaw is the fastest growing agent harness out there, which can work 24/7 to automate almost any kind of tasks. However, its capabilities are limited to the tools it has access to. Composio allows your OpenClaw to access Needle with authentication management handled for you. You can execute actions on Needle via your favorite OpenClaw interface (Telegram, WhatsApp, TUI, etc), whichever you prefer.

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Api Key

Needle is a RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) toolkit that brings semantic search capabilities to your own data. It lets you build smarter AI agents by giving them context-aware, accurate information retrieval.

16 Tools

Introduction

OpenClaw is the fastest growing agent harness out there, which can work 24/7 to automate almost any kind of tasks. However, its capabilities are limited to the tools it has access to. Composio allows your OpenClaw to access Needle with authentication management handled for you. You can execute actions on Needle via your favorite OpenClaw interface (Telegram, WhatsApp, TUI, etc), whichever you prefer.

Also integrate Needle with

Why use Composio?

Apart from a managed and hosted MCP server, you will get:

  • Programmatic tool calling allows LLMs to write its code in a remote workbench to handle complex tool chaining. Reduces to-and-fro with LLMs for frequent tool calling.
  • Handling Large tool responses out of LLM context to minimize context rot.
  • Dynamic just-in-time access to 20,000 tools across 1000+ other Apps for cross-app workflows. It loads the tools you need, so LLMs aren't overwhelmed by tools you don't need.

How to install Needle with OpenClaw

Using Composio API Key and Setup Prompt

Copy the setup prompt from the OpenClaw dashboard
  • Run it in your OpenClaw chat interface.
  • Authenticate Needle from the dashboard
  • Go back to your OpenClaw interface and start asking questions.

Using OpenClaw/Composio Plugin

1. Install OpenClaw Composio plugin

bash
openclaw plugins install @composio/openclaw-plugin

2. Copy the API Key from dashboard.composio.dev

3. Setup OpenClaw Config

bash
openclaw config set plugins.entries.composio.config.consumerKey "ck_your_key_here"

4. Restart OpenClaw

bash
openclaw gateway restart

5. Go to your chat interface and start asking questions.

6. When prompted, authenticate the app and you're all set.

How It Works

The plugin connects to Composio's MCP server at https://connect.composio.dev/mcp and registers all available tools directly into the OpenClaw agent. Tools are called by name — no extra search or execute steps needed.

If a tool returns an auth error, the agent will prompt you to connect that toolkit at dashboard.composio.dev.

Configuration

bash
{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "composio": {
        "enabled": true,
        "config": {
          "consumerKey": "ck_your_key_here"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
OptionDescriptionDefault
enabledEnable or disable the plugintrue
consumerKeyYour Composio consumer key (ck_...)
mcpUrlMCP server URL (advanced)https://connect.composio.dev/mcp

What is the Needle MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Needle MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Needle account. It provides structured and secure access to your semantic search collections, so your agent can perform actions like creating and managing collections, uploading and deleting files, retrieving collection statistics, and listing available data sources on your behalf.

  • Collection management and creation: Easily instruct your agent to create new semantic search collections tailored to your data needs.
  • File listing and retrieval: Have your agent list and retrieve all files within a specific collection, making it simple to view and organize your indexed data.
  • File deletion from collections: Direct your agent to remove unwanted or outdated files from any collection by specifying file IDs for cleanup and maintenance.
  • Collection statistics and insights: Ask your agent to fetch real-time statistics on any collection, including document counts, index size, and timestamps to monitor your data health.
  • Browse all available collections: Let your agent page through and present all your collections, so you can quickly access, search, or manage your data resources.

Conclusion

You've successfully integrated Needle with OpenClaw using Composio plugin. Now interact with Needle directly from your terminal, Web UI, or any messenger app using natural language commands.

Key benefits of this setup:

  • Seamless integration across TUI, Web UIs, and Messenger apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, etc.
  • Natural language commands for Needle operations
  • Managed authentication through Composio
  • Access to 20,000+ tools across 1000+ apps for cross-app workflows
  • Programmatic tool calling for complex tool chaining

Next steps:

  • Try asking OpenClaw to perform various Needle operations
  • Explore cross-app workflows by connecting more toolkits like Calendar, Slack, Notion, etc.
  • Build complex automation scripts that leverage OpenClaw's 24/7 running capabilities
TOOLS

Supported Tools

Every Needle action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Add files to a collection

Tool to add files to a collection by providing file URLs.

Add Files to Local Connector

Tool to add files to a local connector by providing file metadata.

Create Collection

Tool to create a new collection.

Create Local Connector

Tool to create a local connector that monitors specified folders on a device.

Delete files from a collection

Tool to delete files from a specific collection by providing file IDs.

Delete files from local connector

Tool to delete files from a local connector by filename or file IDs.

Get Collection

Tool to retrieve details for a specific collection by its ID.

Get collection stats

Tool to retrieve statistics for a specific collection by its ID.

Get File Download URL

Tool to get a short-lived signed private download URL for a Needle file.

Get File Upload URL

Tool to get signed URLs for uploading local files to Needle.

Get local connector

Tool to retrieve details of a local connector by its ID.

List Collection Files

Tool to list all files within a specific collection by its ID.

List Collections

Tool to list collections.

List Connectors

Tool to list connectors.

List Local Connectors

Tool to list local connectors.

Search Collection

Tool to perform semantic search within a specific Needle collection and return ranked results with source references.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Needle MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Needle tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Needle and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. OpenClaw fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Needle tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Needle scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Needle data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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